Bobby Whitlock, Derek and the Dominos Co-Founder and Session Player for George Harrison and Others, Dies at 77
Bobby Whitlock, the keyboard player and vocalist who co-founded Derek and the Dominos with Eric Clapton and played on classic albums like George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass," died Sunday at age 77. His manager, Carol Kaye, confirmed toVarietythat Whitlock died Sunday morning at 1:20 a.m. after a brief bout with cancer. More from Variety 15 Stylish Accessories to Gift the Stoner in Your Life: From a Ravioli Pipe to Bejeweled Lighter Eric Clapton's 'MTV Unplugged' to Be Released in Theaters With Bonus Content Robbie Robertson Tribute Concert Has Eric Clapton, Van Morrison and Other Stars Carrying That Weight - and Starring in a Future Martin Scorsese Movie The Memphis-born musician was signed to Stax Records at an early age and played with artists like Booker T. and the MG's and Sam & Dave on his way up before becoming an integral member of Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, during which he forged an alliance on tour with Clapton. He soon found himself working on "All Things Must Pass," and with three keyboard players credited on that all-time classic, who played what has been murky. But among the parts he is given credit for is the piano on the track "Beware of Darkness" — which millions of people are hearing play out this weekend as the opening music in the horror hit "Weapons." Derek and the Dominos turned out to be a one-album wonder, but what a "one album" — the 1971 double LP "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" is considered by many to be one of rock's greatest albums. Whitlock co-wrote seven of its tracks, including "Bell Bottom Blues," "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?" and "Tell the Truth." "That thing was like lightning in a bottle," Whitlocktold Best Classic Bandsin 2015. "We did one club tour, we did one photo session, then we did a tour of a bit larger venues. Then we did one studio album in Miami. We did one American tour. Then we did one failed attempt at a second album." He blamed the usual suspects for the click burnout — "Everybody was doing entirely too much drugs and alcohol," and there were ego conflicts between other members of the band, he said — but Whitlock had some company in contending that, while they lasted, Derek and the Dominos were "the very best band on the planet… We were better than anybody." After the breakup of that supergroup, he went on to release a series of solo albums in the 1970s, starting with "Bobby Whitlock" in 1972, which included all the members of the recently split group, albeit not all on the same tracks. He also made an uncredited appearance on the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street," and made the claim that he was cheated out of a rightful co-writing credit for the song "I Just Want to See His Face," which he said he came up with with Mick Jagger while Keith Richards was not around. His other credits as a guest musician include self-titled albums by Clapton and Doris Troy, Dr. John's "The Sun, Moon & Herbs" and Stephen Stills & Manassas' "Down the Road." Whitlock grew up in a hard-scrabble as the son of a minister, but described his upbringing as abusive. He found escape as a teenager in Memphis in the mid-'60s playing in a group called the Counts. "I wasn't into the Rolling Stones or Beatles or anything like that. I was into the soul music that was coming out of Memphis," hetold Stephen Peeples. He was signed to a new label that Stax was founding, Hip Records, but it was one that was meant to release British Invasion-type music, and the fit just didn't work out — Whitlock left the label without releasing anything, complaining that Stax saw him more as a potential bubblegum artist. Nonetheless, he thrived on learning at the feet of musicians like Steve Cropper and Booker T. and being around as many of the greatest soul records of the '60s were being created. Then Duck Dunn brought Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett to see his band at a local club, and they invited him to join them in California. "I hadn't been any further (west) than Texarkana in Texas, so I said, 'Hell, yeah!' right there in front of Duck and everybody. And so I was gone in two days after that. We started Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, just Delaney and Bonnie and myself." Clapton was in a period when he did not want to be known as a solo act but be involved in band situations. That manifested in his tour and live album with Delaney and Bonnie. When most of the members of that ensemble went on to work with Joe Cocker, Whitlock held on as the remaining "…and Friend" before he reunited with Clapton, for the Harrison album and Derek and the Dominos. Interestingly, Whitlock hated the coda of the band's most famous number, "Layla." "The song was complete without the coda," he said. "The original single didn't have it on it, and the few times that we did it [live] we didn't do it then either. Plus, there's the added fact that it is stolen goods. Jim Gordon got the piano melody from a song that he and his then girlfriend Rita Coolidge wrote together called 'Time.' Jim took the melody to the song and added it as the piano part. So he ripped it off from his girlfriend and didn't give her writer's credit for it. In my opinion, the piano part taints the integrity of this beautiful heart-on-the-line, soul-exposed-for-the-world-to-see song that Eric Clapton wrote entirely by himself." Talking of that period with the Houston Press in 2011, Whitlock said, "We were getting along pretty good until the hard drugs came into play. Jim and Carl and me had been together for several years prior to the Dominos thing, and we always got along really well. Jim was a great guy when he was straight. But when he started getting heavily involved in heroin and coke an booze, his personality changed drastically. I am very happy that the one studio record was the 'one' and that was it. It never will have anything other than itself to be compared to. It was the beginning and the end, and the all and all of itself — it's magnum and opus all wrapped up in one." After not having released a solo album since 1976, Whitlock — who had been semi-retired in Mississippi for many years — came back in 1999 with his fourth album, aptly titled "It's About Time." But, by his own account, he was "going crazy" at that time from taking too many meds prescribed for an inner ear condition and serious vertigo. Then British TV host Jools Holland had invited him and Clapton to make a joint appearance on "Later… with Jools Holland," even though the two former close collaborators had not seen in each other in nearly three decades. "I was on all those meds and still drinking wine. My whole insides were convulsing," he told Best Classic Bands. "I then saw Eric sitting there across the room… And there was a sense of peace about him, an aura of peace. And… I wanted that. I knew that (the real) Bobby, the guy that is talking to you here now, is not shrouded with all these pharmaceuticals and alcohol. I rememberedmewhile in the throes of all that. And I said, I want my life back. And pretty much six months afterwards to the day after I had that epiphany, I called it all off." Whitlock had sold off his rights to Derek and the Dominos' royalties many years prior, but he said Clapton and his manager helped get them back. There was also a settlement, Whitlock said, with Clapton over the authorship of "Bell Bottom Blues." In the meantime, the musician credited his royalties from jam sessions that made up the third disc of the "All Things Must Pass" 3-LP set for his ability to make ends meet. "That's been paying my electricity my whole life," he said. When it came to the highly contentious credits for "All Things Must Pass," Whitlock was adamant that he was the dominant keyboard player on the classic album, saying that Harrison "asked me and Eric to put together the core band and to be the core band for the album… If I had only done hand-claps or sang a background part on this great album, that would have carried me for the rest of my life," he said in a 2021 YouTube video, when the album was getting a remix and deluxe re-release. "But, fortunately, I played on pretty much and sang on everything. On 'My Sweet Lord,' that's just George and me singing background… I was there when the doors [to the studio] opened and I was there when they closed. I did not miss one session. I even went to the two Pete Drake sessions because I wanted to say that I had been to every session… I can tell you right now, Gary Wright isn't playing the B3 on 'Let it Down.' It's me… All the Hammond organ, I'm playing. So anytime you hear a Hammond… Billy Preston is playing a grand piano. That's how it really went." In the early 2000s, he began doing club shows with his wife, CoCo Carmel Whitlock (who formerly was married to Delaney Bramlett), performing the "Layla" songs acoustically. "The songs on that album are as new today as they were then," he said in a 2006 interview with the Austin Chronicle. "They just never had anyone perform them that had anything to do with them." The shows resulted in a live album by the duo, "Other Assorted Love Songs," in 2003. After a brief sojourn in Tennessee ("I was a little too soulful for Nashville," he laughed), Whitlock moved to Austin in 2006. "It reminds me of Memphis in 1965, when it was about the music, and everybody was supportive of everybody. Now I can't imagine living anyplace else." In 2021, Whitlock and his wife moved away from Austin. He had been based in the small town of Ozona, Texas, according to his Facebook page. In 2010, he released an autobiography, with a foreword by Clapton. Whitlock was inducted into Memphis' Beale Street Walk of Fame in 2024. Last year, speaking with the Everything Knoxville site in conjunction with his Memphis honor, Whitlock said, "There was a point in time where I really didn't think anybody cared. I knew they acknowledged my input on all those great records, you know, 'Layla' and 'All Things Must Pass' — there's a list of them. … My business is to try to conduct myself as a decent person and a gentleman as much as I can, get through this world, navigate through this without making too many waves. But when you make them, make them big – ones to remember… All of the sudden, everything seems to have turned around, and I wasn't looking for it, that's for sure. "I knew my input and I was good with it. I was all right with myself whether anybody ever acknowledged anything I've ever done or not," he continued. "I've got a great life. I paint every day. I'm really good with doing what I do. It's just another extension of who I am. And I've been blessed in each and every way; everywhere I turn around, you know, it's just nothing but a blessing for me." In recent years, he had undertaken painting and had hundreds of his pieces displayed in galleries in Texas. Besides his wife, he is survived by three children, Ashley Brown, Beau Whitlock and Tim Whitlock Kelly, and his sister Debbie Wade. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week What's Coming to Disney+ in August 2025 What's Coming to Netflix in August 2025 Sign up forVariety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us onFacebook,Twitter, andInstagram.
Bobby Whitlock, Derek and the Dominos Co-Founder and Session Player for George Harrison and Others, Dies at 77 Bobby Whitlock, the keyboard ...
